Flames of Revolution Spread Across Northern Africa

by Jack Lee

Recently the media’s has focused our attention on the Islamic Boko Haram, but all over Northern Africa there are similar radical Muslim groups, all vying for power and control, and they are no less dangerous than the Boko Haram. We’re just hearing about one small group of limited influence thanks to their kidnapping of little girls in Nigeria.

Besides the Boko Haram, there are dynasties of radical groups in Nigera and they are spread across whole regions of North Africa causing no end of carnage. They exist virtually unknown to the Western world because these are poor people of little strategic value. They do not present a national security risk to America and so we’ve mostly ignored them. It’s also an extremely complicated situation to report on.

I can’t stress this enough, there are many Muslim organizations involved now and they are all seeking dominance over millions of North Africans. Recently the Safavid’s (an old name) have been gaining traction in a huge region that extends across Mauritania, Western Sahara, Algeria and a large part of Morocco in some of the poorest regions on earth.

Safavids have been around for hundreds of years since they were first formed in Persia (Iran) and then they spread across Northern Africa until they ran up against the Turkish Empire and war broke out…they lost. That was a major setback for the Safavids and it halted their further expansion.

Only in the last few years when the Arab Spring movement erupted did it breath new life into an old cause. The Safavids were about the only group ministering and offering services to the local poor in these poorest of nations. When the revolutions spread from Egypt and Libya and then across Northern Africa the Safavids suddenly discovered that they were in a prime position of influence! This was not because they had the right message or the right direction, but they had been around for centuries and the local people knew them and many respected them for their outreach to the poor. Safavid leaders capitalized on their trust are now making inroads into the governments of a number of Northern African nations. This has led to further radicalizing the local Muslim population and a rejection of Western values and influence.

The Safavids are just one of many Muslim groups, but they all share one thing in common: They are all about gaining political and religious power by any means. Radicalizing the locals is always natural part of any revolutionary movement, but it’s especially so in Islam and this part does not bode well for anything or anyone Western.

The United States does not have good intelligence sources in Northern Africa, mainly because those nations of interest to us don’t want us there, and the Obama Administration has a strict hands off policy. However, what we do know is not good. Northern Africa is a tinder box for Islamic extremism and the slaughter of civilians caught up in it. As Islamic aggression rises so do atrocities, but they are never reported in the Western news and we’re mostly oblivious to what is happening in this part of the world. It was only this recent attack by Boko Harma that caused an outpouring of concern and shed a little light on the brutality happening in many North African countries.

For several weeks Nigeria’s President, Good Luck Jonathan, has been asking for U.S. assistance in tracking down the kidnappers of the school girls. it took three weeks of pleading and finally President Obama dispatched six unarmed investigators to assist the military and to act as hostage negotiators. However, we sent over 200 Special Forces troops in neighboring Uganda two years ago to capture or kill Joseph Kony, the former leader of a child army, and he’s still operating. So, six unarmed investigators in Nigeria likely won’t do much, except to provide talking points for the White House. The same could be said for the latest hash tagging message, “Bring our girls home” on Twitter. It makes for nice warm fuzzy feeling for those doing the twittering, but to radical Muslims radicals of the Boko Haram, operating in the backwaters of Nigeria, the message of concern goes unnoticed.

The United States currently has no foreign policy of any note for Northern Africa and this is not by accident. Most of the Islamic extremists operating in that region are semi-autonomist, often engaged in rival skirmishes, they battle lines are confused, the leaders change weekly. Some groups are directly linked to Al Qaeda, some are not, and many are worse than Al Qaeda. As a result we’re operating with blinders on or we’re in a wait and see mode. But, before you get too angry at Obama, read on.

There are times when no action is far better than the wrong action or meddling where we’re not wanted. Sometimes in ethnic wars, wars by religious factions or sects and diverse political groups just have to go at until there is a victor and some sort of organizational leadership emerges from the fog of war that we can deal with. This means bad things will happen and innocents will suffer greatly, but our choices are severely limited and entering into these bloody contests as peacekeepers, even with the best of intentions, can often make things even worse as it was in Lebanon, Somalia and Iraq. This is a dangerous and tumultuous time with great humanitarian needs, but to insert ourselves into it is likely to have no good end. Restraint, patients and wisdom should prevail over emotion and frustration now.